Our story
We only buy coffee we would happily drink every morning
Northbound is eleven people in a former herring warehouse in Bergen. We roast twice a week, cup every batch before it ships, and publish what we paid for green coffee at the end of each harvest.
Every batch is tasted before it leaves
Each roast is logged, sampled and cupped against the reference profile the morning after it comes off the drum. If it drifts, it goes to staff coffee — not into a bag with your name on it. In 2025 we rejected 6.4% of production this way.
The cupping bar is open to the public every Saturday at 10:00. It's free, it takes about an hour, and you don't need to know anything about coffee to come.
How we got here
2019
A 1 kg sample roaster in a garage
Ingrid Hovland and Tomas Rye started roasting for four cafés around Nordnes, delivering by cargo bike.
2021
First direct contract
A three-year agreement with the Ndaroini co-operative in Kirinyaga, renewed every harvest since.
2023
Sandbrogaten roastery opens
A 12 kg Loring and a public cupping bar in a converted herring warehouse on the harbour.
2026
Twelve producer partners
82% of our green coffee now comes from relationships older than three years.
What we commit to
Prices paid, published
Every lot page in our harvest report lists the FOB price we paid and the C-market average that week.
Roast dates, not best-before
Bags are stamped with the day they were roasted. We think you should judge freshness yourself.
Packaging that composts
Kraft bags with a wood-pulp barrier and a steel tin tie you can pull out and recycle separately.